richard noble rrr:1 Articles 17/1/09 17:52 Page 22 The Noble purpose The creator of the ARV Super 2 and the Farnborough F1 is again on the warpath on behalf of British engineering, as Pat Malone reports 22 General Aviation February 2009 richard noble rrr:1 Articles 17/1/09 17:53 Page 23 ichard Noble’s CV reads like one of end. Love him or hate him – which many of ARV Super 2 those business cards you used to get in his acquaintances manage to do at the same He learned to fly in order to polish his personal Rjoke shops – ‘revolutions put down, time – he is the kind of man around whom disciplines ahead of the Thrust 2 record rockets test-flown, virgins cured’, that sort of high achievers congregate, and by whom they attempt, and being Richard Noble, looked at thing. A serial doer of difficult deeds, he is are imposed upon to achieve more. Setbacks the agricultural Cessna in which he was being famous for having held the world land speed that would crush ordinary men are mere trained and thought: ‘There has to be a better record for 14 years before putting together the irritations to him when he has his sights on a way…’ But we all did that, didn’t we. The Thrust SSC project that took the record through goal. He is the reason Britain holds the land difference is that Noble not only designed a the sound barrier, where it remains today. He speed record, and he’s the reason nobody new aircraft, the ARV Super 2, but put it into has mounted four-wheel-drive safaris the dismisses the 1000 mph car out of hand. the air, certificated it for public transport and length of Africa and sold chemicals and It’s hard to put your finger on what Richard got it into production. The ARV had a number concrete floors, had a shy at lifting the Atlantic Noble does or how he does it. He’s not a of problems that needed to be fixed – the Blue Riband and created the ARV Super 2 trained designer or engineer, yet he original Hewland engine was a weak point – training aircraft and the Farnborough F1 air understands design and engineering in great but what killed it after 30-odd aircraft had taxi. Now he’s in the headlines again as the depth. He’s not a trained driver, yet he drove been produced was the attitude of institutional man who says he will build the world’s first Thrust 2 to 633 mph. What he does is investors. At the first whiff of trouble, the thousand-mile-an-hour car, and when Richard persevere: with small teams and large projects money began to dry up, exactly when it was Noble says he’ll do something you won’t get he has to multitask on a wide scale, and with most needed to move the aircraft on. long odds at William Hill’s against him doing limited finance there is seldom room for error – “Investment has been liberalised since it. life is an endless fight right down to the wire then,” says Noble, “but the problems remain. The purpose, he says, is to create an iconic and through to completion. It’s very difficult to Mike Hewland once said to me, ‘Richard, I project that will capture the attention of get behind his mask; innocuous personal have a successful gearbox company, but when youngsters everywhere and turn them on to questions are batted off with practised ease, I need to raise investment money, I’m talking the wonderful world of engineering, just like in and when he’s explaining his motivation he to a man who moves a piece of paper from the old days when Campbell’s Bluebird, clicks into a groove that tells you it’s not the one pocket to another pocket and takes 15 Concorde, the Harrier and the TSR2 raised the first time he’s told this story. It’s percent for doing so. If I’m talking about taking sights of kids of his own generation. Noble understandable – he’s had 30 years of dealing risks with capital, how can I compete for the himself saw John Cobb’s Crusader 1952 jet- with the press. He’s been traduced and money?’ But the investment banks’ gravy train powered water speed record challenger on misrepresented more than most, and his has hit the buffers, and we need to ensure that Loch Ness in 1952, an experience which greatest efforts have been roundly denigrated; money is available for long-term manufacturing infected him for life. At that time, of course, after Thrust SSC shattered the sound barrier, projects that will produce a real return. Britain had two dozen companies making the newspapers chuntered on about how “The financial institutions are hopeless aeroplanes and ten more making engines for pointless it all was. But publicity has been the when it comes to financing these projects and them; today we’re hanging on to our aviation lifeblood of much of what he has attempted, I’m very critical of them. I find them badly heritage by our fingertips. Can we recreate an and he must grit his teeth and answer stupid organised, arrogant and disconnected from industry we have all but destroyed? Richard questions with a smile. His story is told in his reality. The ARV went into production on Noble thinks it’s not too late, if only we can own words in his excellent book Thrust, but minimal finance, which made the organisation mint the engineers and designers we so suffice it to say that seeing John Cobb’s vulnerable – we couldn’t take any kind of desperately need and fix the elitist disconnect Crusader lit a fire that no amount of stultifying knocks. We had tremendous problems with of the financiers. British pessimism can quench, even though the CAA, who were simply so backward! Years The situation is dire. The government Cobb was killed in an appalling accident a few later they said to me, ‘Richard, we learned so recognises the problem, partly because the days later. Noble mounted the Thrust 2 world much from your project…’ and I though yeah, Ministry of Defence is obligated to hire British land speed record attempt with £175 obtained it cost us a bloody fortune to teach you. engineers and can’t get anywhere near enough from a scrap merchant for the wreckage of the “But we got the ARV up and flying, and Thrust 1 car –a gas turbine powered concept operating costs were about 20 percent lower racer he built himself, and since then his life than traditional trainers. Fuel burn was less, has been one long round of raising money and it was a much nicer aeroplane to fly. As a from the barely-interested to fund the next company you’re stuck with overheads like challenge. regulatory costs and you have to have a high production rate in order to amortise that. We Left: Richard Noble drove Thrust 2 to 633mph had 2,000 sales enquiries, 126 people Below: whatever happened to...? Noble and working and the buzz around the factory was the ARV Super 2 stand between the Edgley fantastic. Every week there was a new aircraft Optica and Chichester-Miles Leopard at off the line, the quality got better and better we Farnborough ’86 were working our way along the learning curve when we hit problems with the engine. As of them. Noble has canvassed manufacturing industry and the utilities and finds that the picture is far worse than the MOD says. “The reservoir of engineering expertise Britain once had is running dry,” he says. “Some companies have entire departments dedicated to finding engineers, bringing them in from all over the world. But Britain is beginning to realise that without engineering, technology and manufacturing, we don’t have a hope. The City casino is shut, and the country now knows it has to work for a living. Engineering and manufacturing must become the foundation stones of our economy.” If anyone can overcome Britain’s inertia and set us off in a new direction, it’s Richard Noble. A silver-tongued persuader who has loosened the purse strings of some of the tightest corporations in the country, he has occasionally trampled on the delicate sensibilities of friends, supporters and enemies alike, but most will cut him endless slack because he’s a one-off, an ideas man who can drive the wildest projects through to the bitter General Aviation February 2009 23 richard noble rrr:1 Articles 17/1/09 17:53 Page 24 with any new project we needed time and money to work through them, but the financial guys could not understand what we were trying to do. We wouldn’t get full margin until we got 100 aircraft out of the door, and we got 30-something before we ran out of money.” Ironically, the ARV Super 2 is now being resurrected by a company called Opus in the United States, where the intention is to market it in the Light Sport category. Richard Noble no longer has any connection with the aircraft. “I put a lot into it, but when it’s over you just have to let go,” he says. “You can’t carry baggage around.” In fact Noble’s own ARV ended up upside down in a field after it suffered an engine failure. “I was flying from Tatenhill to Popham when the water pump bearing failed,” he says.